President Muhammadu Buhari has launched the National Ethics and Integrity Policy to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The President stated that corruption and corruptive tendencies are abhorrent to Nigeria’s core ethical values even as he called for stronger collaboration among government agencies to end the menace.
Presiding over the virtual the 2nd National Summit on Diminishing Corruption and Launch of National Ethics and Integrity Policy at the council chamber of the presidential villa, Abuja, Buhari declared that the Policy “projects government’s aspiration for the rediscovery of our cherished traditional ethical values of honesty, integrity, hard work, truth and justice, unity, faith, and consideration for one another irrespective of status or background.”
According to him, the summit was put together by the ICPC, in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, and the National Orientation Agency.
The President recalled that “as military Head of State, I fought corruption headlong and held public officers who abused their office or misused public funds to an account. Furthermore, I introduced the War Against Indiscipline (WAI), one of whose cardinal objectives was the promotion of our cherished culture of ethical conduct, integrity and hard work.
“I recognized in 1984 as I do even more now that corruption poses a clear danger to Nigeria, so, we cannot relent in efforts to eradicate it from our society. As I have often reminded Nigerians, ‘If we do not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.’”
He reiterated his belief that progress could only be achieved in the delivery of dividends for the citizenry when the arms and tiers of government work together.
“I believe that it is when the three arms and the three levels of government work together that the government will be enabled to serve the country. We will also see the positive impact of our efforts reaching all and sundry across the country.”
